The present invention relates to energy conservation in the workplace and, more particularly, to automated methods and systems for adjusting the power state of workspace appliances.
One of the objectives of an eco-friendly office is to only have workspace appliances (e.g., lights, computers, fans, etc.) fully powered when the office worker is at his or her workspace. One way to achieve this eco-friendly objective is to have the office worker manually power-down workspace appliances upon leaving the workspace and power-up workspace appliances upon returning to the workspace. Unfortunately, many office workers at least occasionally forget or don't bother to manually power-down their workspace appliances upon leaving their workspaces, resulting in large amounts of energy being wasted.
Another way to make progress toward this eco-friendly objective is to install presence sensors at the workspace. When the office worker leaves the workspace, his or her presence is not detected and workspace appliances are powered-down. When the office worker returns to the workspace, his or her presence is detected and workspace appliances are powered-up. Unfortunately, presence sensors are sometimes prone to false positives that cause workspace appliances to be powered-up even though no one has reentered the workspace. Moreover, most presence sensors do not verify the identity of the person who has entered the workspace. Accordingly, a cleaning person or maintenance worker who enters the workspace may inadvertently cause workspace appliances to be powered-up when the office worker is not there. False positives and lack of identity verification can once again waste large amounts of energy.
Video cameras and image processing equipment could be implemented along with presence sensors to verify that the person who has entered the workspace is the office worker before powering-up workspace appliances. However, installation of video cameras and image processing equipment adds meaningfully to system cost. Moreover, office workers may perceive video cameras at their workspaces as invasive of their privacy, which can adversely impact worker morale.